Alkaline saline soils, known also as "soda solonchaks", represent a natural soda habitat which differs from soda lake sediments by higher aeration and lower humidity. The microbiology of soda soils, in contrast to the more intensively studied soda lakes, remains poorly explored. In this work we investigate the diversity of culturable aerobic haloalkalitolerant bacteria with various hydrolytic a...

Efficient catabolism of cellular triacylglycerol (TG) stores requires the TG hydrolytic activity of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL). The presence of comparative gene identification-58 (CGI-58) strongly increased ATGL-mediated TG catabolism in cell culture experiments. Mutations in the genes coding for ATGL or CGI-58 in humans cause neutral lipid storage disease characterized by TG accumulati...

Nucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase (NPP) is a widely distributed enzymatic activity occurring in both plants and mammals that catalyzes the hydrolytic breakdown of the pyrophosphate and phosphodiester bonds of a number of nucleotides. Unlike mammalian NPPs, the physiological function of plant NPPs remains largely unknown. Using a complete rice NPP1-encoding cDNA as a probe, in this wo...

The aim of present study was to determine an appropriate ISR (inoculum to substrate ratio) to enhance the hydrolysis rate and reduce the solid retention time of food waste in hydrolytic-acidogenesis leach bed reactor (LBR). LBR 1-4 were inoculated with 0%, 5%, 20% and 80% (w/w basis) of anaerobically digested sludge, respectively, using artificial food waste as substrate. Experiments were condu...

Background: Angiogenesis is a fundamental process that allows tumor growth by providing nutrients and oxygen to the tumor cells. Beyond the oxygen diffusion limit from a capillary blood vessel, tumor cells become apoptotic. Angiogenesis results from a balance of proand antiangiogenic stimuli. Endogenous inhibitors regulate enzyme activities that promote angiogenesis. Tumor cells may express pro...